🧾 Total transparency

0% commission: so what do you live on?

It's THE question we get asked. And it's a healthy one — when something looks too good, you're right to look for the catch. Here's the answer, in plain words, with no grey areas.

First, the golden rule.

You, the restaurateur, never pay a commission on your dishes. €0, no matter what. The service is not funded on your back. If you remember one thing, make it that one.

So who pays?

The service is funded by a customer contribution, added to their order at a pay-what-you-want price: everyone gives what they want to keep a fair, local alternative alive. It's a bet we own — that informed customers would rather support their town's businesses than a multinational. We believe it, and we're telling you it's a bet, not a certainty.

And if a customer doesn't contribute? That's fine, no judgment: there's no contribution on that order, and still 0 commission for you. Card payment fees are the standard banking fees of any online payment — like on your usual terminal — never a percentage on your dishes, never a surcharge added for the customer.

And if the bet doesn't hold?

We'd rather tell you now, in black and white. Captain.Food isn't a commercial product: it's an open-source digital commons. So there will be no commission and no price list. If voluntary contributions weren't enough to cover the running costs, we would share, at cost, the bare minimum:

• Customer side — a small share of the running costs, per order. Anything given beyond that stays a contribution.
• Restaurateur side — a share of the real costs, split across the number of restaurateurs aboard: the more of us there are, the smaller it gets. Never a commission, never a percentage on your dishes.

And as soon as the model allows it, all of that disappears: back to free. The goal isn't to sell software, but to keep a commons open to all — not a fine-print clause.

One cost will remain, and we're not hiding it: delivery (a channel to come) — paying the person who brings the meal decently. It would be the only line you'd chip in on, and only on your delivered orders: your share would be capped by the floor margin you set, and the customer would pay the difference. We explain it all, numbers included →

Why this model stops us from squeezing you later

A classic platform earns more by raising its commission. We don't: we take no commission, so we don't have that lever. And the status we're aiming for — solidarity-based social utility enterprise (ESUS), with a cooperative (SCIC) as our course — would legally frame what we're allowed to do. The tollbooth is something we don't want to be able to become. The goal is to write it into our rules, not just our intentions.

Transparency all the way: our books in public

The best safeguard against empty promises is being able to check. So we're opening our books in total transparency on Open Collective: every contribution received and every expense committed is meant to be publicly visible there, down to the euro — to you, to the riders, to anyone who wants to look. We're just getting started; the page fills up as we move forward. You don't have to take our word for it: you'll be able to check.

Out of caution, a provision for VAT will appear there as an expense line in its own right. And to be clear: contributions are not donations giving right to a tax reduction — they're support for the service, not a tax-deductible gift.

→ See our accounts on Open Collective

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